Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Why did Fr.Nicholas Gruner not just tell the pope that there is nothing in Vatican Council II to contradict the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus ?

Why did Fr.Nicholas Gruner not just tell the pope that there is nothing in Vatican Council II to contradict the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus ?
 
 
 
 
 
First of all, as Your Holiness well knows, the Church has defined infallibly in one solemn pronouncement after another the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus est—outside the Church there is no salvation. (Cfr. Council of Florence and the Bull Unam Sanctum) Your predecessor Blessed Pius IX, whom you yourself have beatified, warned the faithful in Singulari Quadem that they must not preoccupy themselves with pointless speculation about the possibility of salvation for those who are not formal members of the Catholic Church, since only God knows whom He will save (in some extraordinary manner) from among the great mass of humanity which has not exteriorly professed the Catholic faith. For this reason, Blessed Pius IX exhorted the faithful to hold fast to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus est and to continue the divinely appointed work of the Church in making disciples of all nations. As for the lot of those who remain outside the visible Church, His Holiness warned that “all further inquiry is unlawful.”
Who can doubt the wisdom of this admonition? Indeed, the Church has constantly and infallibly taught that no one in this world (absent a special private revelation) can know with absolute certainty the subjective state of any soul, much less whether a soul—even one’s own—is numbered among the elect. Since it is not possible for the Church to presume that anyone is either saved or damned, the ministers of the Church are duty bound to seek the conversion of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, following Our Lord’s own command: “Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded thee. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he who believes not shall be condemned.” (Mark 16;16)
Following this command, the Church has not only taught the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus through the infallible definitions of her extraordinary magisterium, but has also infallibly proposed through the constant teaching of her universal ordinary magisterium the doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ — that is, the duty of every nation, as well as every man, to profess the Catholic faith and follow the law of Christ the King. As Your Holiness well knows, this teaching is expounded in a marvelous manner in the encyclical Quas Primas, by your predecessor of blessed memory, Pius XI, and is also found in the encyclicals of Saint Pius X (Vehementer Nos), Pius IX (Qunta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors), Leo XIII (Immortale Dei and Libertas Humana), Gregory XVI (Mirari Vos) and others…
Now, if the Vatican’s new orientation, since the Council, does not represent some contradiction to the perennial teaching of the Church on her own mission in this world — then it would have to be shown how this new orientation comports with the prior teaching of the infallible extraordinary and universal ordinary Magisterium. -Fr.Nicholas Gruner
 
'then it would have to be shown how this new orientation comports with the prior teaching of the infallible extraordinary and universal ordinary Magisterium'
The ‘new orientation’ uses the irrational inference in the interpretation of Vatican Council II. So the Council is a break with the past.
When the false premise is not used Vatican Council II does not contradict extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
-Lionel Andrades
 

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